Swedish Fund Boosts Green Infrastructure

Finnish state-owned utility Gasum has received grants totalling €18 ($20)mn from the Swedish Climate Leap initiative (‘Klimatklivet’) to build environmentally friendly infrastructure in Sweden, it said December 20. Gasum has already embarked on a filling-station construction programme using liquefied biogas (LBG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the Nordic countries. 

There will be a biogas plant in Gotene, running mainly on manure, and the biogas produced will be be used for LBG production. In addition, the plant will produce biofertilisers, which for the most part will be organically certified. For that, the grant was €15mn.

And there will be four gas stations in high-traffic areas: Malmo, Halmstad and in eastern and western Gothenburg. The stations are planned to begin operating in 2020 and for them the grant is €3mn. The initiative supports climate investments to cut CO2 emissions in Sweden. New stations in Sweden will be part of the gas filling station network which offers LBG and LNG for heavy-duty vehicles.

“Klimatklivet is essential in supporting our journey towards a carbon-neutral society. Without the grant, we wouldn’t be able to build these new stations in Sweden. People are becoming more aware of the benefits of gas in Sweden and now is the time to invest in clean energy solutions,” said Gasum.

The national target in Sweden is to reduce road transport emissions by 70% by 2030, as compared to 2010 levels. With the development of Gasum’s Nordic gas filling station network, more environmentally friendly options are becoming increasingly available and supporting the transition to cleaner road transport. With the use of LBG, CO2-emissions can be reduced by approximately 85% when compared with diesel, and by 20% with LNG.